‘Antalya weathers difficult tourism season successfully’

ANTALYA

It has been a difficult season for Antalya’s hoteliers with several events impacting tourism activity, but tourist inflows from Europe are expected to pick up in October, says Kaan Kavaloğlu, the president of the Mediterranean Touristic Hoteliers’ and Investors’ Association (AKTOB).

“The bankruptcy of FTI, Europe’s third largest tour operator with special focus on Türkiye, the Euro 2024 and the Paris Olympics… All made it a tough season for hoteliers here. But we still made significant achievements,” he said, noting that tourist arrivals rose 8 percent in January-July.

The average length of stay dropped by one day, and this impacted hotel occupancy, according to Kavaloğlu.

However, he is hopeful that October will be “a good month” for the local tourism industry as people in European countries will travel during holidays in several European countries, including Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands.

“I think we will have the best October in recent years, including 2019,” he said. In 2019, Türkiye and Antalya saw a record number of foreign visitors.

Kavaloğlu expects 76,000 foreign tourists to visit Antalya in October.

As of the first week of September, the number of foreign tourists visiting Antalya has reached 12 million, he noted.

The tourism season may extend until the end of November if weather conditions are favorable, he added.

Several scheduled events in Antalya, such as the selections for the Aviation, Space and Technology Festival, the gastronomy festival Food Fest, and the Culture Road Festival are very important in diversifying tourism, Kavaloğlu said.

He voiced optimism that Antalya is likely to host 16.6 million foreign tourists this year and this figure may reach 17 million, including transit passengers.